Halloween carnival

Thomas' school held a Halloween Carnival today. Instead of his normal classday, Parker and I came to school with him for the carnival and a little Halloween party with his class.

I'm not sure how much involvement Thomas had in making his own t-shirt or if the teachers made them for the children, but all of the kids wore matching t-shirts instead of costumes. Here's the best picture I have of Thomas in his at the carnival:


They were very cute and Thomas was very excited about wearing it. He kept telling me he painted it and pointed at the flower. Not sure how true that is, but they were cute all the same.

The carnival consisted of many different games the children could play to win prizes. Thomas had a fun time, but since I was carrying around Parker as well, the pictures aren't all that great!

Thomas worked on his golf skills...


He dropped some hula hoops around pumpkins (probably are supposed to throw them, but the 2-year olds get a little break)...


He even had his face painted with a little pumpkin/jack-o-lantern:


With this game he couldn't quite understand how or why to throw the ghosts onto the sticky tape, but he finally figured it out...


Once we got back to their classroom, we sat down for a little storytime and singing, and then got to the Halloween party. Thomas kept asking when he could eat his snack, so he was most happy when the time finally arrived.


Thomas' Daddy should be proud to see his boy sitting at a table with four girls and one boy. :) This is half of his class, the other half is at the other table.

Then my camera died, so that was it for the pictures!

Boys will be boys

What a day! I've heard the saying "boys will be boys," and today I really learned what it means. Boys will be mischievous!

Thomas decided he didn't want to take a nap. So after he spent about an hour not napping in his crib, on my fourth trip in to answer his screams of "Mommy! Mommy!" I decided to let him get out. I asked him to play quietly in his room while I finished sorting the laundry downstairs and got that started. I put the gate in his doorway and he wasn't completely quiet, but he was good enough. He, of course, however, pulled ALL of the books out of his bookcase (as he has done a lot lately) and dumped all his toys on the floor. I let him come downstairs and let him play while I sat down to figure out what to cook for dinner. After sitting for a few minutes he ran into me shouting "I ran in the clean clothes! I jumped in the clean clothes!" Yeah, it took him less than five minutes to turn my five neatly sorted piles of laundry into this:


And it actually got much worse after that. He started kicking laundry into all parts of the house and everytime I tried to pick things up, he came behind me and dumped them all out again. But that was nothing...

When Parker woke up from his nap I went upstairs to feed him for about 15 minutes. I left Thomas playing downstairs and he usually is very well behaved. I think actually I left him in his room and then he went downstairs. After I finished with Parker I called down to Thomas and asked what he was doing. He ran to the bottom of the stairs, looked up at me with a sweet smile and said, "I'm making a mess with the water in the kitchen." Uh-oh. I asked him what water and he said, "The water in the kitchen." I thought he had pulled my glass of water off the counter. I wish.

As soon as I got downstairs I realized that not only was his hair wet, but his shirt was soaked and his pants were so soaked they were making splashing noises as he walked. Not only that, they were so wet they were falling down. I got to the kitchen and quickly noticed there was water ALL OVER the floor. I am not kidding. It covered almost the entire kitchen. Since the camera was closeby from the earlier mess, I picked it up and that kid kept on going! You can kind of see how wet he is here:

As I was trying to take the video, he was still pushing the dispenser!!

It took me 5-6 bath towels and about 15 minutes to clean up all of the water (which stretched 10-15 feet away from the fridge at one point. I had to pull out the fridge to dry out underneath it. Water was everywhere. If it wasn't so funny, I probably would have been really angry, but as it was, it was all I could do not to laugh. I guess that's the reason the dispenser does have a lock on it. And I need to get in the habit of using that feature!

Rolling, rolling, rolling

This morning when I looked at Parker on his video monitor, something looked a little strange. I went in for a closer look and sure enough, this is what I found:


The reason this was remarkable was because this is the first time Parker has rolled completely onto his belly from his back. He has rolled to his side and almost to his belly a number of times, but always goes back to his back. He has rolled from his belly to his back a number of times since he was only a couple months old. He was very proud of himself this morning:


I was so proud of him. When I took him to his 4-month well baby visit (nearly two months ago!), the doctor asked if he was rolling over yet and said he should at some point between 4-6 months (with it being just as "normal" at 6 months as at 4 months). Even though I would not have "worried" about him either way, I didn't want to go to his 6-month WBV next week and tell the doctor he still wasn't rolling over.

So just in the nick of time, he decided to make the big move. Good for Parker! And, by the way, when I put him on his playmat this morning, he did it again...and again. I guess he just wanted to prove it wasn't a one-time thing.

And actually, this is what he looked like when I came in this morning:


He is becoming more and more of a thumbsucker. Unlike his big brother, he's not very interested in pacis, and just recently has started taking a bottle (a few times). But he is most content with his thumb. I guess it is perfect seeing how he always knows exactly where it is and how to get it in his mouth. Here he shows off that skill in his bouncy seat this afternoon:


The orthodontist is going to love us.

Two and a half years old!

I'm only slightly over a week late... Thomas is now two and a half years old! I cannot believe it. I know it is an overused phrase, but where does the time go?


When Thomas first came home from the hospital, we noticed right away that he laughed in his sleep. He started smiling early and he soon started laughing while awake, too. And that's just Thomas. He smiles and laughs and loves life. His teacher has commented to me about how much he just smiles and smiles all day. He is such a happy boy and his happiness brings such light to my heart.



How can you not smile when you see this face? Can I ever really have a bad day?


I don't even know where to start with his update this month. He is growing so much, developmentally and physically. He talks ALL.THE.TIME. He loves to give me the play-by-play on his life. "Mommy, I'm going to get my dump truck. Mommy, I'm sitting in my dump truck. Mommy, I'm sitting in my dump truck. I'm putting my toys in my dump truck, Mommy." And on, and on and on and on.

He loves reading books (or having them read to him, rather) and he's always saying things later that he picked up in his books. Like he'll tell me his car is "stuck in the muck" or "I'm frustrated, Mommy," or a wealth of other little lines he picks up here and there from the books we read. It's funny. Today's line of the day was everything was "taking it easy today," because that's a line he got from the book we read last night, Goose Goofs Off (one of my Sweet Pickles series books from my childhood).

He still loves cars, trucks, tractors, planes, firetrucks and is lately fascinated with Play-Doh. I'm not sure if I mentioned in here, but recently it was fire safety week at his school. One day they had a fire truck come visit and the kids got to check it out. When I picked up THomas that day, his teacher said to me with great exclamation, "Thomas ABSOLUTELY LOVED the firetruck!!!! He was running around giving the firefighters high fives and we had to beg him to come back inside." The next day one of the kid's dad is a firefighter and he came to talk to the kids. He wanted someone to demonstrate how to stop, drop and roll and apparently Thomas was the only one willing to do it. I was actually a little bit surprised by this behavior (pleasantly so), but it just says how much he loves firetrucks. :)

One thing we are still working on is his eating. He is becoming more open to trying new things, but I wish he would eat more. He is a very picky eater. He loves rice, but makes an utter mess eating it. And we've moved him out of the high chair and into the booster seat, so getting him to sit still is a new challenge. He also is starting to prefer drinking out of a topless cup. That is fine, but he still has not learned that you can't run around with a cup of drink without a lid and you can't just tip it back and forth either. We only put very small amounts in his cup at a time (makes it less to clean up!), but it's definitely a work in progress! We are also trying to introduce cow's milk for the first time (as of a few days ago). So far it's going well in terms of not causing a reaction with his skin, but he doesn't really like it yet. He hasn't had a whole lot of it, but I'm trying to mix it with his soy milk to get him to slowly change over. Hopefully he won't have any reactions. It would be so nice to allow him to eat whatever he wants to try and not have to worry about it all the time.

Potty training is probably not far away. Lately he has asked to go to the potty occasionally (like tonight...and he did both things on the potty right before bedtime). He seems to do better going on the "big potty" instead of his little potties. And what he really seems to like to do is flush the toilet. He'll go a little bit and say he is finished, get down, flush the potty, wash his hands and then say he needs to go again. We'll do this about three times before he finally says he is finished. I'm sure if I really focused on potty training he'd probably do okay and I know I need to do this soon. My goal is to have him potty trained by the end of the year.

I think soon after he is potty trained we will move him into a bed. He is still happily in the crib, but I think before too long we'll at least take off the front of his crib and let that be his "transition" bed for a little while. I'm not quite ready, but it will be soon.

Wow. Two and a half years. It's hard to imagine that for as quickly as this time has gone by, when this amount of time goes by again he will be five and ready to start kindergarten. It really does seem to go in the blink of an eye. I know he won't always be this cuddly little guy who loves to give hugs and kisses, so I try to soak it all up now. I need to record the things he says like, "I'm so glad to see you too, Mommy" (that he says without me saying anything). He cares so much about everything and everyone. If he sees trash on the ground he says sadly, "Ohhhhhh, Oh no.... That's terrible. Somebody has to pick that up, Mommy." I hope he always keeps his loving personality.

He is so sweet and loving to his brother. As soon as he sees him, he always wants to give him a hug and tell him hello. He is always giving Parker his toys and saying he will let him hold them for a minute because he is sharing with Parker. Granted, sometimes he does tell me to stop feeding Parker and come outside with him (and leave Parker inside), but for the most part, he wants Parker to be around him.

I love this little boy with all my heart and I just cherish every day I get to spend with him, watching him grow and learn. And now a few more pictures for fun...












I love my "little man!" :)

Text for a cure

I meant to post this earlier this week, but I don't imagine that this only applies for today. You may recall my friend whose son has a fatal form of muscular dystrophy, Duchenne MD. He is four years old (his website is the first on my list of links on the right side). Today college football coaches are wearing patches on their sleeves as part of an event, Coach to Cure MD, to raise money for researching a cure for this dreadful disorder. You can send a $5 donation just by texting on your cell phone (CURE to 90999) or using this thing below. I cannot tell you how worthy this cause is. I feel certain a cure can be found; I just want it to be as soon as possible. Just thought I'd post it here in case anyone is interested in participating. No pressure... :) But I'd love you forever if you donate now...and so will Thomas & Parker. ;-)

Aunt Wory

Unfortunately, I do not get to see my aunts (and uncles) very often. So when the opportunities arise to see one of them, I try to take advantage. My mom's youngest sister was in town this week, and we were able to see her on Wednesday. My mom was there, along with my brother, his wife and their baby. It was great to see her, and we had a fun morning at the aquarium and then out to lunch!


Since Thomas still finds saying words that start with an "L" a little tricky, he much preferred to call her Aunt Wory instead of Lori.

While at the aquarium, we partly listened to some of the dive show....


Parker just hung out in my lap...


Aside from enjoying his first trip on the escalator, Thomas also enjoyed playing on the new "boat.' We haven't been there since they finished setting this up (last time they were working on it). Thomas had a ball with it.









The aquarium has a Scary Aquarium theme for the month of October. Thomas was not a fan of the scarecrow making noises in the Camp Carolina exhibit, or the green man that peers down after a bang above the gar fish, but he did find this thing a little amusing...


We enjoyed the day with family and look forward to seeing everyone again soon!

Today's pet rock

For some kids back in the 70s (or the 60s?), the trendy toy of choice was the pet rock. Well, apparently my child decided he needed to add a new millineum twist to this pet of the past. Today, Thomas was obsessed with a bar of soap.

He found it in a plastic container and I thought he just wanted it because he couldn't get the container open. You know, once he saw what it was, he'd lose interest and leave it alone. So after he protested enough to drive me crazy, I opened it up and let him have the fragrant glycerin bar of soap. He carried that thing around for nearly two hours (he asked to take it downstairs and then outside). I was almost afraid he'd ask to take it to bed with him!


I'm not sure why the fascination, other than the fact that he's never really used a bar of soap before (except at his grandparents' house). We use a liquid body wash and liquid hand soaps, so I guess it is kind of new to him. Still, it was a bit funny and odd at the same time.

In other news, Thomas is TWO AND A HALF years old today! I should post pictures and an update but his puppy is on the lam until the middle of the week, and I cannot do his pictures without him! So until then, here's a picture from today just for fun. Most days when I wake Thomas up from his nap, Parker is already awake. So many times I will just put Parker in the crib with Thomas. It makes Thomas wake up a whole lot faster and much easier (read: happier). They both seem to enjoy it very much:

Long overdue pictures

For months I've been thinking of taking the boys to Portrait Innovations for some semi-professional pics. I keep putting it off for one reason or another. This week I almost put it off again because Thomas is in need of a haircut, and I didn't have the perfect outfits for them, but I decided I'd just do it anyway. It was now or never, I do believe! The boys did pretty well and the resulting pictures were okay. Here are my favorites (and family members, yes I have plenty of wallets, 5x7s, 3.5x5s and such to go around!):

















And then these two I not buy, but I really like them...




I plan to take them back again around Christmastime for some holiday pics. First I have to find the perfect outfits (which I think I have!). That time I will be more prepared!

A morning at The Citadel

It was Parent's Weekend at the Citadel today so we used it as an opportunity to take the boys up to Trey's alma mater and show them around a bit. We met up with Trey's classmate, James (who is the dad of Thomas' friend Lily (and Parker's friend, Sarah Ellen) and the wife of my friend and fellow playgroup mom, Taryn) and all of his family, too. It took us forever to find a spot to park, so we caught the tail end of open barracks. We decided to go to 4th Battallion as it is the last of the "old corps" (ha!) barracks (i.e. not rebuilt, but it does now have window-unit ACs for all of the rooms!). Trey introduced Thomas to the quad...


We watched a bit of the ceremony where the knobs are formally accepted into their companies, complete with push-ups at the end.


Thomas & Lily were more interested in pushing the stroller around...


The kids wanted to see the helicopter, so we made sure to make that a photo opp...


It's nearly impossible to get them both looking at the camera AND smiling, but this is the best we could do...


Thomas was, of course, most interested when he saw this old Bronco. He pretended to be a three star general and hopped right in...




Lily took her turn, too...


Then parade finally started and the kids were somewhat interested in seeing the band and cadets march out...




And yes, Parker & Sarah Ellen were there too. I don't have a picture of Sarah Ellen to prove it, but see, Parker was there and wearing his best Citadel gear to show his support for the Bulldogs...


Midway through parade, Parker decided he had had enough and he wanted to be fed and take a nap. So I took him over to Mark Clark Hall while the rest of the crew stayed for parade. Mother Nature had other plans. Not long after Parker and I got there, the rest of the group came too because the rain had chased them off the parade field.

After the rains slowed, we decided to leave campus and go for lunch. So even though our trip to The Citadel was short, it was a good time and we enjoyed spending some time with our friends, too!